With the market now well below both the September all time high, and the January "blow off top" spike, and unable to make new highs despite a third consecutive earnings season which will see earnings rise by a whopping 22% Y/Y, shrinking fwd PE multiples further and invite value investors to rotate out of growth stocks, traders and analysts have been quietly asking if "something changed" whether in terms of market sentiment and composition.

According to a new note released by Goldman's derivatives strategist John Marshall, the answer is yes.

In the note, Goldman claims that the October sell-off has "reinforced our view that professional investors and US corporates are in the midst of a deleveraging process."

We believe this shift began with the February 2018 VIX spike which kicked off a risk reduction among professional investors that will affect borrowing costs and corporate leverage.